Heaven help me, I entered the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler earlier in the week.  I say ‘heaven help me’ because there are three things conspiring against my ability to run such a race.

First, my knee. Between injury and inflammation, I’ve had difficulty maintaining a solid running habit since May – i.e., the key running months.

Second, the distance. Even before my knee flared up, the longest distance I ran in one go was six miles. Ten miles is considerably longer than six miles, in case you weren’t aware.

Third, the months between now and April 3 – the date of the race – are likely to look like this:

Photo by jack_spellingbacon

So what in the world possessed me to enter the lottery? Who the hell knows. It was probably a fit of madness brought on by a need for solid motivation and a desire to have an excuse to visit DC. At any rate, the high today is 37 – positively tropical compared to the highs this coming week – so I’m off to bundle up like a marshmallow and attempt my first real winter run. Wish me luck (and the avoidance of hypothermia).